The Bet
by adromir
Summary: Spike makes a bet he shouldn't have. With surprising result.


**Hi, guys! This is a very short one-shot, something that I came out with while watching the Suzuka Formula 1 GP, now still ongoing with Vettle still in the lead. I got the idea for the fic after watching the episode 'Whatever It Takes', where Spike and Wordy made bets on Sam and Jules night shooting contest. **

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Summary : Spike makes a bet he shouldn't have. With surprising result.**

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"Alright. That's it for today!" Commander Halloran finally announced, much to the joy and relief of everyone present. "Good work, guys. Now see you all tomorrow in your cool pants."

Amidst cheers and hand-clapping, both Team One and Team Four got out of the pool. They had spent almost an entire day in the SRUs aquatic arena for the underwater tactical training since early that morning. After more than six hours of intense exercises, they were all ready to pass out from exhaustion.

"Hallelujah," said Spike as he staggered towards the poolside bench and sat down hard. "Another hour of this torture and I might drown!"

"I think you've already 'drowned'," Ed interjected after taking a gulp from his bottled water. "I caught you napping when the trainer was giving a lecture on the importance of staying awake while fighting hypothermia."

"That's right, Spike. We all could hear you snoring," Sam added, toweling himself dry. "I had to wake you up by pulling you underwater."

As the others broke into laughter, Spike threw his own towel at Sam's head. "You overreacted! All you had to do was give me a slight nudge, that's all. You didn't need to yank hard at my leg!'

Chuckling, Sam threw the damp towel back at his teammate. "I did give you a nudge, but you were so dead to the world you snored even louder. What kept you up last night, buddy? Is there a mysterious lady we should know about?"

Smiling mischievously, Spike crossed his arms and wiggled his eyebrows. "If I tell you, I'm gonna have to kill you."

"Ooohh…" His teammates chorused in unison, truly enjoying this.

"Watch out, everyone. Spike is in love," said Jules, exchanging knowing looks with Leah.

Both SRU ladies were exquisite in their one-piece swimsuit. Their petite yet muscle-tone bodies were lithe and powerful when they cut through waters, having no troubles keeping up with their fellow male teammates. And Sam, who looked mighty fine himself wearing only a pair of Speedos, couldn't keep his eyes off Jules the entire time. Talk about sweet distraction.

Spike was blushing. "I'm not in love. I'm just—"

"In _lust_?" Sam cut in. "Tell us, is she a blonde, a red-haired, or a brunette?"

"A blonde," was Spike's quick reply. "With pale blue eyes, a fast talker, and as stubborn as some people I know."

Sam froze. "It's _Nat_?"

"Did I say it's your baby sister?"

Sam hastily raised his arms in the air. "Whoa. If it's Nat, then I _really_ don't want to know."

"Relax, Sammy." Spike draped an arm around his friend's shoulder. "I'm not saying it's Nat. But imagine if it's indeed her. We could be brothers for real!"

Parker was wheezing for breath as he finished laughing. "Alright, both of you. Enough with the foreplay. Spare an old man some breathing room, please."

"You? An old man?" Leah shook her head as she eyed him up and down. "You still look good in that swimming trunk to me, Sarge."

While the others rolled over with mirth, Parker grinned and waggled a finger at her. "Flirting with me is not going to get you a turn as Sierra One, young lady. You need to try harder."

"Aw shucks. I thought my charm would work!"

Laughing, they all gathered their gear and headed towards the locker room to change. Halfway there, Parker looked up to gaze at the diving tower, with a twenty-foot deep diving pool beneath it. "We're lucky they didn't tell us to jump off that platform, or I would surely embarrass myself to early retirement."

Ed grinned. "An SRU officer who's afraid of heights? What the world has come to?"

The Sergeant scowled back. "Hey, look who's talking? You cuddle any cats lately?"

"Touché," the team leader glibly responded. "But we rarely have hot calls involving cats, do we?"

"Say, Ed," said Jules, "If there's a cat holding a rat hostage, which one would you shoot?"

Ed rolled his eyes. "What's the difference? I'll shoot both!"

While their teammates roared with mirth behind them, Spike nudged Sam. "How high is the top platform, do you think? Ten meters?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Must be a hair-raising experience if you had to take a dive from there."

"You've rappelled a hundred times before. The state of inertia is basically the same."

"Not when you're going down headfirst. Besides, rappelling keeps us tethered. But diving is free fall, no strings attached. If I had to do it, I might freeze into stone!"

"Well, I won't."

Stopping in his tracks, Spike gazed intently at his mate. "You won't? As easy as that?"

Sam shrugged. "Yeah."

"I don't believe you."

"You don't believe what, Spike?" Parker asked. The rest of Team One had also come to a stop, curious to hear more about the two men's conversation.

"Sam here thinks he can easily jump off the top platform," Spike replied with a scoff. "I bet he can't even get past the kiddie one!"

Instead of insulted, Sam looked thrilled. "You really wanna bet?"

"Sure, I bet you cannot make the jump."

"How much?"

After a short moment of thinking, Spike said, "A hundred bucks."

"You're serious?"

"Yeah. A hundred bucks say that you can't."

As the team waited with bated breath, Sam took his own sweet time considering. And then he broke into grins. "Okay. A hundred bucks it is!"

With that, he dropped his things and jogged for the diving tower.

"My god, he's really gonna do it." Jules' mouth dropped open as she watched Sam start to make his climb to the top. Growling, she slapped Spike in the arm. "Now look what you've done!"

"_Me_?" Spike was aghast. "I was just joking. I never thought he would take it seriously."

Ed shook his head. "This is an ex-Special Forces guy we're talking about, Spike. An alpha-male. Every challenge is serious to them."

"Especially one with such a huge ego," Jules added, still mad at Spike for even suggesting the bet. She was about to call out to Sam to abort the dive when Parker interrupted.

"Hold on, we need to see this."

"But, Sarge…"

"Just watch."

Sam had already reached the top by then. He calmly walked to the very edge of the platform and turned around, his back to the water. Shuffling a bit until he stood only on his tiptoes, he then raised his arms outstretched, parallel to his shoulders. He held that pose for several heartbeats before springing off his feet.

It was a perfect launch.

With exceptional flexibility and strength, Sam rotated backwards after takeoff before tilting his body sideways to execute one-and-a-half twist, followed by double somersaults and finished the routine in a pike. He entered the water as straight and smooth as an arrow, with not much splash to mark the surface.

Spike's jaw dropped. "Holy shit."

"Son of a bitch…" Ed muttered, his eyes widened in awe. "He did it."

Parker was grinning from ear to ear. "And he didn't simply jump. That's a world class diving he just executed."

Sighing, Spike cringed as Sam swam to the edge of the pool and heaved himself out. "Great. Look at him, swaggering towards us. I'm not gonna hear the end of this."

Leah giggled in delight. "Serves you right, Spike. You should know better not to bet on things unknown."

Meanwhile, Jules was struck speechless, so astonished that she was. She couldn't form a word until Sam came to stand right in front of her. "Braddock, I'm so damned hot for you right now I don't think I can wait until we get home."

Reddening with pleasure, Sam just chuckled. Turning to Spike, he demanded, "Okay, dude. Pay up."

"No way, man."

"Hey, I won the bet fair and square."

"Na-ah. You never told us you can actually do _that_. Did you compete in the Olympics or something?"

"I almost did. The Commonwealth Games, I mean. But then I joined the military. It has been a long time since my last dive, but it's like riding a bicycle. The routine just naturally comes back. Easy."

"Yeah, it looked effortless from here too," Ed said, clapping Sam on the shoulder. "You're full of surprises, Samo."

Spike was quick to differ. "We all know he sucks at swimming, though. Come on, Samtastic. If you can beat me in a fifty meters dash, I'll pay you the hundred bucks. So try and catch me. And yeah, it _is _your sister!"

"Huh? What do you mean—hey!" Sam shouted when Spike abruptly dived into the pool and started swimming towards the other end. "Damn it, Spike. That's a false start!"

Sam also dived into the water and started to give chase, while the rest of their team laughed and cheered them on.

Well, with Team One, there was never a dull moment.

**THE END**

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**Hopefully that makes you all smile. Thank you for reading! See ya soon!  
**

**Adromir signing out. ^_^**


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